Jonjo Shelvey ‘Rafa Benitez knows what he is doing’

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Jonjo Shelvey has accepted his part of the blame in Newcastle United’s relegation last season.

The midfielder has also declared ‘Rafa Benitez knows what he is doing…’ which nobody is going to disagree with.

Jonjo Shelvey was left out at the end of last season as Rafa didn’t feel he could rely on the former Liverpool player in the relegation run-in.

However, Shelvey reacted in the right way this summer, lost a stone, and has looked more like the player we thought we’d bought when he turned up and gave a scintillating performance on his debut in the win against West Ham last season.

The player has also complimented his manager on the transfer activity this summer and delivering a big profit which should be available for more investment in the team/squad this January.

The fans have also been praised by Jonjo Shelvey, saying it must be daunting for the opposition to come to St James Park.

Well we have seen little sign of that so far with Wolves and Huddersfield winning and Norwich almost doing the same, until they threw it away in the fifth/sixth minute of injury time. Both Brighton and Reading also caused problems before eventually being defeated.

Maybe more a case of Rafa Benitez and his players needing to find a way to harness the benefit of fifty thousand fans supporting them, not saying our players have looked daunted but maybe a need to get the fans going from the first minute by getting at Brentford from kick-off today.

Jonjo Shelvey:

“I wanted to stay at this club, get them back in the Premier League, I felt that when I was playing last season that I didn’t do enough personally to warrant playing.

“We just need to get this club back where it belongs and a lot of us stayed, some moved on and the club got good money for them”

“If you look at the players we have bought in and moved on, we are in profit in terms of money, it is a great bit of business by the club and that is probably down to Rafa Benitez as well.

“Rafa Benitez knows what he is doing and I feel we have the right manager to get us out of this league.

“I think that we just need to start being a little bit more patient at home and if we don’t score in the first five or 10 minutes we have to stay calm.

“It must be daunting for the opposition to come to this massive club and stadium, especially in the Championship, they have probably never seen a crowd like this in the Championship.

“It’s brilliant for us because they are our fans and we need to repay them.”

About the author

Jim Robertson

Staff Writer - We don't ask for much, a few decent players and some entertainment, plus a club that looks to do its best by everybody - including the fans.